Can a laptop optical drive run from USB 3.0?

[zsombi0806]

I have a sony blu-ray drive salvaged from a laptop. If I get an adapter like this, will the drive run without external power? If not, can it draw enough power to run from another usb port, or do I need power from the wall socket.?

 

[CountMike]

Most probably yes because those thin drives use only 5v and USB3 gives more power than USB2.

 

[Alabalcho]

This adapter will work for as long as the salvaged drive is SATA. Check the drive' end.

 

[g-unit1111]

Wait - are you talking about taking the laptop drive from the laptop casing and using that as an external drive? If so there's a chance that it might work but more than likely it won't.

 

[CountMike]

Thin, USB external drives also use laptop machine CD/DCD/BDs.

 

[g-unit1111]

Thin, USB external drives also use laptop machine CD/DCD/BDs.

Yes, but those are made to be used externally. They're not coming from an existing machine. I've seen SATA to USB external cables and theoretically that could work, but I don't know if those are made anymore or not.

 

[CountMike]

Yes, a lot of those SATA to USB 2 and 3 adapters for 2.5" disks and also for 3.5" but those need separate power supply 12v.

 

[g-unit1111]

Yes, a lot of those SATA to USB 2 and 3 adapters for 2.5" disks and also for 3.5" but those need separate power supply 12v.

Yeah but needing a separate power supply kind of defeats the purpose of having an external. By the time you buy all the parts to make it work you could have just bought an external drive and been done with it. My LG drive that I bought was $42 and handles all the CD burning and DVD needs I will ever use it for.